Hermanowski Family Foundation Initial Request Form<\/p>\n
Organization Name: Hearts of Mercy
\nLegal Name (if Different): Hearts of Mercy, Inc.
\nAlso Known As: Hearts of Mercy
\nMailing Address: 364 N. Main Street Suite #1
\nCity: Manahawkin
\nState: NJ
\nPostal Code: 08050
\nMain Phone: 9087830269
\nMain Fax:
\nOrganization Website: www.hearts-of-mercy.org
\nEmployer ID Number: 47-1170968
\nOrganization Tax Status: Active\/Approved<\/p>\n
Proposal Information<\/p>\n
Today’s Date: 3\/18\/2026
\nRequested Amount: 10,000<\/p>\n
Project Title: Summer Camps \/ Mentoring
\nProject Description:<\/p>\n
Hearts of Mercy recognizes that the stresses facing too many families in the 21st century negatively impacts their children — emotionally, physically, and socially. We are here to alter that impact with an impact of our own by helping under-resourced children break the cycle of poverty. We do this by providing a safe learning environment, increasing caring connections, and creating endless opportunities for the children we serve to have fun while learning and growing their curiosity and their quest to learn and achieve more, towards a brighter future. Hearts of Mercy’s mission statement is \u201cTo break the poverty cycle through learning and enrichment programs that motivate at-risk children to create a better tomorrow.\u201d Hearts of Mercy (HOM for short) believes enriching activities and academic and emotional support can place these children on the right path to better decision-making and long-lasting careers. This will lift the next generation out of poverty.
\nIn the early 2010s, Hearts of Mercy’s founder, Kristin Santorelli, moved from Roswell, New Mexico, to Manahawkin, New Jersey. In her new neighborhood, she saw poverty on levels she hadn\u2019t seen before and was motivated to help. By connecting with local teachers, Church members, Police, artists, and Government officials, she built Hearts of Mercy to support the mission.
\nKristin collaborated with community members to provide haircuts and holiday parties through a local hotel. In 2015, HOM became a 501(c)(3) organization. Through the early years of the organization\u2019s 501(c)(3) status, Kristin and her team grew and developed the versatile programs HOM has today that support growth and stability for these children.
\nHearts of Mercy supports at-risk children with life enrichment through tutoring, mentoring, art classes, summer camp, access to sports, and this summer a unique weekly camp for Art, STEAM\/Science, Dance\/Drama and Sports Agility. Our services are guided by trained volunteers, mentors, coaches, many retired certified New Jersey Teachers, and industry-leading professionals in the community. They offer consistent support throughout the year to these Students. We offer all programs at a very reasonable rate and adjusted so all can afford! We now bring families in all levels of income status.
\nOur Tutoring \/ Mentoring Program runs 2 days a week with certified Teachers, as we provide the additional curriculum and supplies needed to best support their student. The happiness we see in the child\u2019s eyes as they walk in the door is amazing as the improvements are continuously noticed by the Tutors, the Parents and the Teachers.
\nConnections are the foundation of our organization, which is why we organize outreach events throughout the year. These events bring new children to our programs, and strengthens our long-lasting connections. We have an annual winter outreach with snacks and gifts donated from the community organizations and we reach 50+ Students as they are getting off of the bus. We too meet students throughout the summer with our certified Coaches to encourage and get kids off of their phones.. it works! In the 15 + years, we have had Christmas, Easter, Park Parties, Clothing drives and much more, while building relationships with the students that need our services the most.
\nHearts of Mercy has begun conducting a routine survey for its programs to show our impact on at-risk youth. The survey assesses multiple functions, including the overall performance of the staff and organization, skills and goals attained by individual youth, and approaches and challenges reported by volunteers. Through measured academics and goal setting led by effective staff, these children and teens will be set on the path to a better future, with the potential to raise them above the poverty line.
\nQuantitative Impact Through all of our programs, Hearts of Mercy seeks measurable evidence of social-emotional learning. One of the major factors our annual survey measures is the level of confidence and excitement to tackle new skills. HOM will also be measuring academics through report cards and will report any decrease or increase in grades. Through positive social activity and academic support, these children and teens can grow into well-rounded, confident, and compassionate members of society as adults.
\nQualitative Impact Hearts of Mercy asks for input throughout the year from the Ocean County community through testimonials. Family members and educational professionals have expressed how HOM’s programs have helped children grow emotionally, socially, and intellectually. The youth HOM serves grow more confident, compassionate, and hopeful through each of our programs. Enriching activities and educational support are certainly part of HOM’s social-emotional impact, but the tutors, coaches, and mentors leading these programs are essential to our success. These professionals carefully guide each child and teen, taking into account their individual needs. HOM is proud to have a majority of certified professionals leading our programs.
\nFocusing on our new expansion of our Mentoring Program and our Summer Camps, it is similarly designed for the amazing Mentors to provide hands-on initiative to empower our youth to explore their own unique talents and grow in self confidence while building character and resilience, as well as themselves making the world a better place.
\nOne of our Guiding Principles, Inclusion, is defined to include diversity, equitability and inclusion. Currently, with the exception of our executive director, HoM is powered exclusively by volunteers. As we grow our capacity and advance our sustainability, including the retention of specialized staff and\/or outsourced expertise to support our human resources and administrative operations, we will define processes to further support our commitment
\nReferrals come from local social services agencies, school districts, CASA, word of mouth, website, social media, newsletters and multimedia press. We are actively forming connections with local county youth\/human services agencies, NJ Child Protection and Permanency, and other youth-serving organizations for cross-referrals.
\nTestimonials will tell the story of how this particular program benefited these minors.
\nWe are a full volunteer run organization and run by hearts!\n<\/p>\n
Total Project Budget: $10,000<\/p>\n
Other Funding
\nSources For The Project (Committed & Potential): Business Donations\/Sponsorship <\/p>\n
Project Duration: Tutoring\/Mentoring and Summer Camps through 2027
\nGeographical Area Served: Ocean County, NJ
\nAge Group To Be Served: K-High School <\/p>\n
Contact Information<\/p>\n
Contact Prefix (Mr,Mrs etc.): Ms.
\nContact First Name: Kristin
\nContact Last Name: Santorelli
\nContact Title: Founder \/ Executive Director
\nContact Phone: 908-783-0269
\nContact Email: kristin@hearts-of-mercy.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hermanowski Family Foundation Initial Request Form Organization Name: Hearts of Mercy Legal Name (if Different): Hearts of Mercy, Inc. Also Known As: Hearts of Mercy Mailing Address: 364 N. Main Street Suite #1 City: Manahawkin State: NJ Postal Code: 08050 Main Phone: 9087830269 Main Fax: Organization Website: www.hearts-of-mercy.org Employer ID Number: 47-1170968 Organization Tax Status: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hermanowskifoundation.org\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hermanowskifoundation.org\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hermanowskifoundation.org\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hermanowskifoundation.org\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hermanowskifoundation.org\/members\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/hermanowskifoundation.org\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10222,"href":"http:\/\/hermanowskifoundation.org\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10221\/revisions\/10222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hermanowskifoundation.org\/members\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hermanowskifoundation.org\/members\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hermanowskifoundation.org\/members\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}